Swiss Ponder Joining United Nations

Published 1:01 pm, Monday, April 25, 2016

The new president of Switzerland formally took up his duties Tuesday with a call for a serious national debate on joining the United Nations.

Speaking at the site of Switzerland's National Exhibition, due to open in May, Kaspar Villiger said the United Nations was the only body that could resolve global issues.

"It's in all of our interests to have respect for human rights, an end to fighting and hunger and to prevent damage to the environment," he said.

Villiger called for a "constructive debate" on the issue in the run-up to a national referendum in March on whether to join the United Nations. Switzerland is the only sovereign nation that doesn't belong to the world body.

In the last vote, in 1986, three-quarters of voters rejected the proposal over concerns that U.N. membership could threaten Switzerland's cherished neutrality. This year's vote is expected to be closer.

Villiger, 60, the country's finance minister and a member of the centrist Radical party, took over the presidency from Socialist Moritz Leuenberger. The mainly ceremonial post rotates annually among the seven members of the Cabinet, and this is Villiger's second time as president.

During his first term, in 1995, Villiger made the first formal apology on behalf of the government for Switzerland's actions during World War II.

He regretted the "unforgivable" way that Switzerland turned back refugees at its borders and handed over to the Nazis some who were already in the country.